That could be a possible reality in the near future as football’s governing body is scrambling to decide what its future in games looks like.
The world footballing governing body FIFA has issued a statement titled ‘FIFA set to widen gaming and esports portfolio‘ which I am certain has absolutely nothing to do with EA’s recent announcement that it would look to re-brand the long-running FIFA series. FIFA wanted too much money and it looks like the latest entry FIFA 22 will be the last under that name, with EA having trademarked ‘EA Sports FC’.
“FIFA is bullish and optimistic about its long-term future in gaming and esports following a comprehensive and strategic assessment of the gaming and interactive entertainment market,” reads FIFA’s statement, before getting in a quick dig at former partner EA: “it is clear that this needs to be a space that is occupied by more than one party controlling all rights.”
Yeah!But hang on isn’t that FIFA’s whole deal?
FIFA is now apparently “engaging with various industry players, including developers, investors and analysts, to build out a long-term view of the gaming, esports and interactive entertainment sector.”
Reading between the lines here, it’s pretty obvious that FIFA is scrambling to decide its future in gaming and attain as much money from eGaming as possible. This is a company that worships the dollar (as the collapse of its licensing deal with EA has indicated) and it now faces going from being the most popular videogame sports brand on the planet to, next year, having to start from scratch with a new partner and compete against the juggernaut EA has built. Not before time, some EA execs might say: there’s a perception within the publisher that EA has done more to build FIFA’s brand over recent decades than FIFA has.
As an avid FIFA gamer , I am watching developments to the story with keen interest as any decision made by the two companies would somehow affect me , whether it would be a good or bad impact we do not know . Only time will tell .